Entrepreneurship Today : The Resurgence of Small, Technology-Driven Businesses in a Dynamic New Economy

This book explores how the U.S. has been in the throes of a startup revolution, fueled by a risk-taking culture. There has been a growth of young startup from 1994, accelerating after 2010 through the present day. Most entrepreneurial activity is in the professional and business services sector, which comprises technical services as well as research and development. However, new establishments face a low survival rate, suggesting that starting businesses is not the problem, sustaining their development and growth is the principal challenge. A paradox is presented by the simultaneous presence of declining labor force participation rate among prime working age adults, a decrease in productivity growth rates in the past decade and a startup revolution. There are five native skills that are acquired by experience rather than formal education: resourcefulness, practical intelligence, over-optimism and personal initiative. These are built on a foundation of attributes that form the culture of risk-taking and decision-making. Underlying values and beliefs include collaboration, openness to new ideas, an awareness of the environment and the needs of people in your radius of interaction. A strongly embedded community forms the essence of entrepreneurial culture, and its values cannot be taught, they must be learned through experience. Preface Contents List of Figures Part I Patterns in the Data: 1994–2021 1 Introduction What Is a Startup? Connectivity Cynicism and Mistrust of Government Institutions and State Authority The New World of 2020–2022 Entrepreneurship and Community The Plan The Backdrop: A Short Survey of Related Current Research Bibliography 2 Business Dynamism Over 1994–2020 Young Versus Mature Startups Scale of Startups Kaufmann Foundation Data Results Based on Tax and Administrative Data The Mobility Versus the Desktop Digital Revolution Data Map Bibliography 3 Entrepreneurial Activity at the State Level Time Geography Time and Geography The Mississippi River The Southern Region and the Rising Star of Georgia The NUWMICs Resilience Weak Northeast Region District of Columbia and Hawaii State Level Illustrations Bibliography 4 The Impact of the Great Recession The Turnaround States Correlation Between the Two Periods Per Capita Results Addressing the Unique Nature of Resilient States Washington California Idaho, Massachusetts, and Missouri Bibliography 5 The Mature Startups Mature Startup Survival The Delay Hypothesis State Level Description Per Capita Results Acquisition by the Behemoths or Absence of Support Architecture Industries and Sectors The Professional and Business Services Sector Real Estate, Rental, and Leasing Sector Education and Health Manufacturing Oil and Gas State-By-Industry Portrait The Northeast Region Massachusetts Wisconsin The Southern Region Georgia and South Carolina Texas The Midwestern Region Missouri Nebraska and North Dakota The Western Region Idaho and Montana Colorado, Nevada, and Utah California and Washington Taxation Bibliography Part II Entrepreneurship and Community - Creating a Culture of Risk-Taking 6 Is It About Technology? The Technologies Putting It All Together Idiosyncratic Aspects of States Wisconsin Idaho Massachusetts Missouri California Sizzling Patent Is Not a Startup Clarity About the Product and Customer Feedback The Demand Side—Awareness of a Problem Scaling and Rapid Cost Escalation Unintended Effects of Rapid Scaling Cooperation and the Human-Centered Anthropocene Costs of Coordination Appendix McKinsey Technology Forecast MIT Review Technology Forecast North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) Bibliography 7 The Entrepreneurial Culture It is not About Finance It is not the Gold Rush Model Connectedness Consensual Disagreement, and Adversarial Collaboration Asynchrony and Noise Accelerators and the Support Architecture Scaling, Again Bibliography 8 Experience, Age, Education, Gender, and Race Age, Experience, and the Undefined Factor Paradox 1 - Who Are the Founders? Paradox 2: Productivity and Participation Labor Productivity Growth, Non-Farm Business Sector, Annual Percent Changes Gender Education Entrepreneurship Skills Race and Ethnicity Bibliography 9 The Big Quit: Reimagining Lifestyles Quits The Demographics The State Trends The Pandemic The Government Bibliography 10 Conclusion Culture, Society, and Government A Broader Perspective—communities Policy and Entrepreneurship My Take Bibliography Appendix Data Sources Business Employment Dynamics—Chapter 2 Statistical Details—Chapter 3 First Order Autoregression Model Regression: Time Trends Averaging Across the Trends for Each State and Comparing Trend in Period I with Trend in Period II Using T Test Index This book explores how the U.S. has been in the throes of a startup revolution, fueled by a risk-taking culture. There has been a growth of young startups from 1994, accelerating after 2010 through the present day. Most entrepreneurial activity is in the professional and business services sector, which comprises technical services as well as research and development. However, new establishments face a low survival rate, suggesting that starting businesses is not the problem, sustaining their development and growth is the principal challenge. A paradox is presented by the simultaneous presence of declining labor force participation rates among prime working age adults, a decrease in productivity growth rates in the past decade and a startup revolution. Entrepreneurship can be defined by four native skills that are acquired by experience rather than formal education: resourcefulness, practical intelligence, over-optimism and personal initiative. They emerge from an underlying culture of risk-taking which embraces collaboration, openness to new ideas and an awareness of the environment and the needs of people. Connectivity and shared experiences create communities which provide a sense of belonging and identity through the narrative portrayed and the shared values established. A risk-taking culture is born in such an environment, it cannot be taught but must be learned through experience. Swati Bhatt received her Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 1986 and has been a faculty member there since 1992. Her research interests include the economics of digitization and industrial organization with a focus on the technology industry. Bhatt was a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1985-1990) and taught at New York University's Stern School of Business (1990-1992). Her publications include: How Digital Communication Technology Shapes Markets (2017) and The Attention Deficit: Unintended Consequences of Digital Connectivity (2019)